5/8/15: Irish monthly Unemployment Rate remains stuck at 9.7%

CSO data on estimated unemployment (that used to be released with Live Register) shows estimated unemployment steady at 9.7% in July, for the third month in a row.

• Officially, there were 208,900 unemployed 15-74 year olds in Ireland in July 2015, up 300 on June 2015. 3mo average through July is at 208,833 against 3mo average through April 2015 at 211,833, an improvement of 3,000 on 3mo average basis. Compared to July 2011, there were 107,500 fewer officially unemployed in Ireland. Compared to July 2014, number of unemployed in Ireland fell 32,400.
• However, factoring in those participating in State-established Activation Programmes, number of unemployed in Ireland stood at 289,788 (estimated using lagged data for Activation Programmes participation) in July, down 77,658 on July 2011 and down 16,128 on July 2014.
• There were 37,600 younger unemployed in Ireland in July 2015 (15-24 year olds), up 700 on June 2015 and down 8,200 on July 2014. The number of younger unemployed declined 28,500 compared to July 2011. 3mo average number of younger unemployed through July 2015 was 37,233 against 40,300 average for the 3 months through April 2015. 

• Estimated unemployment rate for 15-74 year olds stood at 9.7% in July, unchanged on May and June, down on 9.8% in March and April. Unemployment rate is down 5 percentage points on July 2011 and 1.5 percentage points on July 2014. Last 4 months marked the slowest sequence of declines in unemployment rate since March 2014.
• Estimated unemployment rate for younger workers was 20.2% in July 2015 compared to 19.9% in June 2015. The unemployment rate declined 8.4 percentage points compared to July 2011 and was down 3.4 percentage points on July 2014.

The key point is the slowdown in the unemployment rate reductions. Over 2012, average monthly rate of reduction in unemployment was 0.083%,  this rose to 0.153% average over 2013 and 0.167% over 2014. So far, over 7 months of 2015 the average monthly rate of unemployment rate decline was 0.071%.

6/4/2013: Part-time & Casual Employment Supports in Ireland

Let's do some more numbers crunching on Irish Live Register for Q1 2013.

In Q1 2012 official Live Register declined 9,902 on Q1 2012 (-2.26%) and down 14,936 on Q1 2011 (-3.37%). Sounds like some achievement. 

Alas, of the above numbers:

• Of the 9,902 decline on Q1 2012, the decline was just 7,154 when we take into the account state training programmes (-1.38%) and there was a rise of 1,181 (+1.34%) in the numbers who claim Live Register supports while being in casual and part-time employment (more on this below). Thus, the numbers of those fully dependent on Live Register have fallen only 8,335 (-1.94%) on Q1 2012.
• Of 14,936 decline on Q1 2011 (-3.37%), there was actually an increase in those claiming supports of 3,217 (+0.63%) when we take into the account state training programmes, and there was a rise of 4,352 (+5.13%) in the numbers who claim Live Register supports while being in casual and part-time employment (more on this below). Thus, the numbers of those fully dependent on Live Register have fallen only 1,135 (-0.27%) on Q1 2012.

Now, some would remark that it is better when people are part-time or casually employed, then when they are fully dependent on Live Register supports. I shall, of course, agree with such a statement. However, let's look at what has been happening with casual and part-time employment numbers over time.

• In 2002-2007 monthly volatility(measured by standard deviation) in the numbers on Live Register who were in casual and part-time employment stood at 1,031. This has risen to 3,979 for the period of 2010-present. In other words, overall casual and part-time employment might have declined significantly in terms of stability of income it offers and, thus reliance on Live Register. This can be due to different quality of skills and occupations for people singing onto Live Register with casual and part-time employment, or it might be due to changes in Live Register supports' eligibility, or both.
• Of all categories of Live Register signees, volatility of numbers on Live Register has risen only  for part-time and casual workers over 2010-present compared to 2002-2007.2
• For the Live Register inclusive of the state training programmes participants, volatility has actually fallen over the above periods, driven by declines in volatility for the numbers of signees who are fully reliant on Live Register supports.

To see the deterioration in the quality of casual and part-time employment linked to Live Register participation, consider the chart below:

The chart clearly shows dramatic increase in seasonality of the numbers of those on Live Register in casual and part-time employment for the end of Q2-beginning of Q3 periods since January 2010 as compared to previous years (2002-2007). You can see that the same effect does not appear in the numbers of signees fully dependent on Live Register supports:

6/4/2013: 80 years to deflate unemployment crisis in Ireland?

Continuing with the Live Register data theme: in the first post I covered broader long-term trends in the LR, with the second post looking at some sub-trends relating to nationality of Live Register signees. Here: a quick note on the size of the problem overall.

Total number of persons (officially) on the Live Register declined 2.07% y/y in March, following a steeper decline of 2.40% in February. Compared to March 2011, current reading is down 3.65%.

Thus, March 2013 reading was 165.8% ahead of the 2004-2007 average, 36.1% ahead of 2008-2009 average and is 3.38% below 2010-present average. Taking Q1 2013 average, the Live Register (again, this is official count, excluding those on State training programmes) was up 1.76% on Q4 2012, down 2.26% on Q1 2012 and down 3.37% on Q1 2011.

For the adjusted Live Register (accounting for state training programmes participation), Q1 2013 q/q rate of increase in the Live Register was 1.53% and y/y rate of decrease was -1.38%.

Let me remind you the size of the problem overall:

At the above annual rates of decline (based on Q1 2013 data), it will take 

• 12.5 years from now to reach 2008-2009 average Live Register levels (which would be consistent with unemployment supports at the levels well above those observed in the 1980s and 1990s) and 
• 40.5 years to reach 2004-2007 average or 37 years to reach 2000-2007 average.

If you want a really scary number, using y/y change in Q1 2013 in Adjusted Live Register numbers, it will take us 81 years from today to reduce Adjusted Live Register counts to 2000-2007 average level. As a robustness check, the number will be 79 years were we to use Q4 2012 annual rate of decline.

Clearly, the 'turnaround' being signaled by the Live Register is simply not enough to deal with the current problem of unemployment and equally clearly, at current rates of economic 'growth' we either need to raise the speed of economic activity expansion by a factor of 10 or carry out some drastic measures on reforming our unemployment supports in order to see significant reductions in Live Register any time soon.